V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.R. Because by your holy cross you have redeemed
the world.

From the Gospel according to John
19:16-17

Then Pilate handed Jesus over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus out,
bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which is called
in Hebrew Golgotha.

Pilate hands Jesus over to the chief priests and the guards. The soldiers put a
purple robe on him and on his head they set a crown of thorns. They mock him
throughout the night; they mistreat him and scourge him. Then, in the morning,
they burden him with a heavy beam, the cross on which thieves are nailed, so
that all can see what becomes of evildoers. Many of his followers flee.

This event which took place two thousand years ago is repeated in the history of
the Church and of mankind. Even today. Once more, Christ’s body, the Church,
is struck and wounded.

Seeing you like this, Jesus,
bleeding, alone, forsaken and derided,
we ask ourselves:
“But all those people whom you so deeply loved,
and helped and guided, those men, those women,
are they not us today?
We too have hidden for fear of getting involved,
forgetting that we are your followers”.

But the worst part, Jesus,
is that I too have added to your pain.
We who are spouses and our families
have also added cruelly
to the burden you must bear.
When we failed to love one another,
when we blamed one another,
when we refused to forgive one another,
when we did not begin anew to love one another.

And yet
we continue to yield to our own pride,
we want to be always right, we demean those close to us,
even those who have united their lives to our own.
We no longer remember what you, Jesus, have told us:
“Whatsoever you do to the least of these little ones,
you do also to me”. These were your very words: “to me”.